CREATURES GREAT FELLED BY CREATURES SMALL - SEA

UNCLAS SAN SALVADOR 000756 SIPDIS QUITO FOR ECON/DTITUS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EFIS SENV ES SUBJECT: CREATURES GREAT FELLED BY CREATURES SMALL - SEA TURTLE DEATHS APPARENTLY FROM BIOLOGICAL CAUSES REF: SAN SALVADOR 000089 ¶1. SUMMARY: Red tide has been determined as the cause of a turtle die off that occurred along the coast of El Salvador in January. Results of toxicology tests on the tissue of a turtle autopsied by U.S. biologists concluded that the turtle died from high levels of saxitoxins in its system. Researchers from the Mexican National Autonomous University came to the same conclusion based on tissue samples taken from two other turtles. No further turtle deaths have been reported in El Salvador since early January, but high levels of toxins continue to be found in shellfish. END SUMMARY. ¶2. A red tide event occurred along the coast of El Salvador beginning in November 2005, causing the government to prohibit the harvesting of shellfish, killing one elderly Salvadoran and sickening dozens. On January 4, 2006 the first turtle remains washed ashore in El Salvador, although there were reports of turtles seen floating on the open ocean on December 30, 2005. The Minister of Environment Hugo Barrera initially said in the press the cause of the deaths was the illegal use of fishing nets not adequately equipped with turtle excluder devices, but later retracted this citing the need for a more thorough investigation. ¶3. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) sent a biologist to work with the Ministry of the Environment (MARN) and CENDEPESCA, the fisheries division of the Ministry of Agriculture. The biologist, Dr. Julie White, spent a week in El Salvador examining the remains of turtles, and took tissue samples from dead turtles and blood samples from two live turtles. The remains of only one turtle were viable to study, and tissue samples from this turtle were sent to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for analysis. The analysis of the tissues showed levels of saxitoxins high enough to conclude they were the causative agent in the death of the turtle. The lab determined the origin of the saxitoxins as the dinoflagellate Pyrodinium bahamense. ¶4. The Mexican National Autonomous University in conjunction with the University of El Salvador also took samples from the remains of two turtles and determined the red tide had killed both turtles. Both MARN and Cendepesca are citing the results of the U.S. and Mexican studies as proof that red tide was responsible for the turtle die-off. Cendepesca reported a total of approximately 200 dead turtles washed ashore or spotted on the open ocean, but most of these turtles had been dead for some time and the remains were too decomposed to provide viable tissue samples for examination. No further turtle deaths have been reported in El Salvador since January, but a similar turtle die off was recorded in Panama in early February. Sonia Salavarria, Fisheries Coordinator at Cendepesca reports that while levels of toxins in shellfish have decreased they are still high enough to maintain the ban on the harvest of shellfish. ¶5. Comment: Of approximately 200 dead turtles in El Salvador, very few valid tissue samples were obtained, which makes confirmation of the overall cause of death difficult. However, the WCS and the Mexican studies both found levels of saxitoxins high enough to cause death in the turtles they studied, and it was known that there was an increase of P. bahamense in the waters off the coast of El Salvador at the time of the deaths, making this the likely cause of death. Illegal fishing had been raised as a possibility for the die off, but the toxicology results make this theory unlikely. End Comment. Barclay